City’s colleges are nothing to crow about

Published on Wednesday 27 February 2002 00:00

TO MOST Glaswegians they are drab concrete monoliths which defame the city’s great architectural heritage.

But councillors will be asked today to grant the Glasgow College of Building and Printing and adjacent Central College of Commerce the protection of a Grade B listing.

Indeed, the 1960s blocks on the north side of George Square have been likened by Historic Scotland to the modern, bold, sculptural expressionism of world-renowned Swiss architect, Le Corbusier.

Students attending the institutions said they were more akin to Le Carbuncles.

Iain Paterson, the council’s director of development and regeneration, said the College of Commerce, “sits on a rustic stone base and concrete pilotis”, with rooftop plant and penthouses “clearly inspired by Le Corbusier’s Unitie d’Habitation in Marseilles”.

However, yesterday, to the lay person, both buildings had more in common with the “coffin-shaped” description of the building and printing college, than the Marseilles masterpiece which houses 1,800 inhabitants in 18 floors of 23 duplex apartments, with shops, a school, a hotel and, on the roof, a gymnasium and open air theatre.

Historic Scotland maintained in its report that both buildings compare favourably to the internationally renowned “elegant, pioneering” Pirelli Tower in Milan and the Alton flatted housing estate in London, also described as “a great statement of modern architecture”.

Yesterday, The Scotsman, visited the buildings to be greeted with muck-encrusted concrete pillars, rattling windows and a windsheer from the vertical walls which almost flattened bemused students. Robert Brown, studying sports therapy at the College of Commerce, said: “It doesn’t seem right does it? They’re disgusting 1960s tower blocks.

“It’s daft to think that they should be listed.”

Greig Sim, 19, studying international trade and business, said: “It’s not a nice building, and certainly not worth listing. The architecture isn’t up to scratch. It doesn’t inspire me and as far as the rest of the listed architecture in Glasgow is concerned, this is not a patch on it. It’s a daft idea.”

Tariq Ahmed, 25, on the same course, said: “The only tourist that might want to see these buildings would be from Afghanistan, because that’s where this looks like it came from.”

Elissa Stevens, studying an art in the environment course, said: “It’s quite an ugly structure, and I wouldn’t say it’s a beautiful building.”

DRINK FOR ATTENDANCE: BRIBERY CLAIM DENIED

THE Central College of Commerce has been charged with “crossing the line” in offering students the chance to win alcoholic prizes if they turned up on a day when attendance figures were crucial to funding.

On 12 November, the college gave students a free ticket for a raffle to be drawn at a disco the next day. College funding is affected by the number of students who turn up for even one day after a quarter of the academic year has passed; the cut-off point was 12 November.

Six days earlier, the college marketing co-ordinator, Mike Anderson, sent an internal memo to course leaders about a “mid-term madness day”. It said the main purpose was “to encourage as many students as possible to remain with the college until the crucial 25 per cent attendance is reached.”

Mike Russell, the SNP education spokesman, said “the line was crossed” at times because of crude funding rules. But Peter Duncan, the college principal, dismissed suggestions that the college had overstepped the mark. He denied the extravaganza amounted to bribery and said was to encourage attendance throughout the academic year, not just a critical day.